With news of Ethereum’s merger and switch to the Proof of Stake operating model, the Proof of Work mining mechanism is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

This change will bring many opportunities to Web3 companies developing new and improved ways to mine. Keep reading to find out how.

PoW’s Limitations

The switch to PoS is a welcome transition for the many PoW critics who have been voicing concern over the huge energy outputs required to maintain the Ethereum Network (total miner energy consumption reached ~70 TWh/yr).

While environmentally harmful, this energy output also created huge costs for people hoping to earn crypto from PoW mining. Moreover, the explosion of mining caused major GPU shortages in the PC market, frustrating consumers.

Due to these limitations associated with traditional PoW mining, it became clear within the crypto and blockchain spaces that a new path to mining yields had to be cleared.

This new method would have to be environmentally friendlier as well as cheaper to execute, while remaining at least equally profitable compared to PoW.

Ultimately, it is WiFi roaming infrastructure that has emerged as the next frontier in mining, offering an opportunity to improve mining methods and decentralize a valuable internet service via Web3 technology.

MetaBlox’s OpenRoaming Mission

To seize the moment of the mining revolution, MetaBlox has developed a mining architecture based on WiFi Open-Roaming services.

MetaBlox’s vision is to create a free, global, and decentralized WiFi OpenRoaming network accessible via a decentralized Web3 ID (DID), which anyone can get on the free MetaBlox app. Download it now for IoS or Android.

Users with a DID generated on their device will automatically connect to any network that is incorporated under an OpenRoaming alliance. The network’s access points are supplied by MetaBlox miners, which function as WiFi routers, and which issue $ROAM tokens as they verify DID credentials to establish WiFi connections.

MetaBlox’s OpenRoaming network is also a part of the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s (WBA’s) own OpenRoaming alliance, which has over 2 million access points already. Anyone who uses the MetaBlox app to connect to the network will get free WiFi at all these WBA locations.

Web3’s On-Chain Gateway to OpenRoaming

MetaBlox’s login model for its WiFi OpenRoaming network is completely decentralized and user-centric because the DID web credential is fully stored and verified on the blockchain, thereby keeping user data off the central databases of third party authenticators and ISPs.

Only users get the private keys for their DIDs, which verifiers automatically process when the device comes within range, enabling automatic WiFi connectivity.

And while DIDs are verified on-chain, users’ privacies are protected because this credential format anonymizes transactions that are recorded on the blockchain.

Anyone can operate a DID-verifying node and claim the $ROAM tokens generated in return. This can be done by purchasing a MetaBlox miner, conducting DID verifications on the MetaBlox app, or by purchasing a MetaBlox NFT (SEE BELOW).

This on-chain verification model for WiFi access achieves a truly decentralized Web3 login method where users are rewarded for supporting the network.

VC Protocol

The DIDs generated by MetaBlox use Verifiable Credentials protocol, which is a credential-creation standard that lets users select exactly what personal information to include in their DIDs, solving security and privacy problems associated with traditional IDs. With such outdated methods, unnecessary and sensitive personal information is at risk of exposure.

For instance, although they are used primarily to prove age and driving ability, drivers licenses include much more personal info than this data.

Moreover apps and websites like social media platforms use login credentials that reveal personal user data that is unnecessary to authenticating their identity. With VC protocol, users can choose to include only the minimum data needed to prove to other parties.

Due to this element of VC, when a miner grants a DID-user hotspot access, the user only reveals the personal info needed for a web credential. In this way MetaBlox has prioritized decentralization and user-privacy.

The combination of DID and VC protocols is set to become the primary Web3 access protocol. Decentralized apps like GameFi DeFi platforms may soon be using DIDs and VC protocol to verify users without exposing their personal information.

A Better Way To Mine

\MetaBlox’s mining model, where miners issue tokens while providing free WiFi to the general public, is proving to be a superior model compared to traditional mining.

This path to mining is more environmentally friendly as WiFi miners consume less energy than traditional ASIC miners, which use significant power due to the nature of their work solving complex cryptographic math problems. Moreover, these powerful miners were nonetheless useless to their owners beyond earning crypto.

MetaBlox miners address these issues of utility and energy consumption associated with traditional miners. Since WiFi traffic alone–not processing power–determines how much crypto MetaBlox miners earn, they need not be equipped with powerful processors that consume huge amounts of energy.

So MetaBlox was able to develop more efficient miners without energy-thirsty processors, instead developing them to function as WiFi routers. Moreover, these devices still function in this way even if they are not mining, providing internet to DID-holders.

NFT Cloud Mining

Recently, MetaBlox has integrated further Web3 technology into its mining model through NFT-utilities. It has released a collection of miner-pegged NFTs called the Genesis Series NFT–available now on Binance NFT–that deliver holders the ongoing crypto yields from a MetaBlox miner in an exclusive location with high WiFi traffic.

This feature is known as Cloud Mining.

These NFT-pegged miners are fully maintained by MetaBlox, so holders don’t cover any of the miners’ operating costs–they only need to make the initial investment into the NFT to enjoy ongoing crypto income.

NFT Staking

NFT staking is another utility that lets Genesis NFT holders earn ongoing token rewards: they can simply deposit their NFT into MetaBlox’s staking pool to collect daily $ROAM rewards.

The MetaBlox staking pool opened for NFT holders on September 12th, and closes on December 12th, 2022. Daily staking profits, which will become available for withdrawal when the pool closes, are about 3~4 USD worth of $ROAM tokens a day, bringing significant rewards to Genesis NFT holders.

View the instructions for staking your MetaBlox NFT.

MetaBlox NFT: VIP Benefits

MetaBlox’s NFT collection has other valuable features besides staking and cloud mining:

• VIP status at special events held by MetaBlox and its partners

• Special airdrops from GameFi partners

• Boosted mining incomes from DeFi partners

• Stronger voting rights in community governance

In Conclusion

Projects like MetaBlox are disrupting the Web3 industry with lucrative alternatives to traditional PoW mining.

These projects are doing so through a commitment to reaching environmental and social goals as well as to reaching higher profits at lower costs compared to older mining methods.

The end of PoW has accelerated the development of new Web3 solutions that are transforming the way people connect with one another and earn crypto. The implementation of new WiFi-based tokenomics and mining models is creating a new, more decentralized and user-centric era of the internet, where data and profits are more fairly and securely distributed, changing users’ lives for the better.

Join MetaBlox’s social media channels to learn more about how it’s building Web3!